Developing Ready-to-Eat food Manufacturers’ Readiness to follow good Manufacturing practice regulations in Samut Sakhon

Abstract

                The objectives of this quasi-experimental research, one group pretest-posttest design were to; 1) develop ready-to-eat food manufacturers’ readiness  to follow good manufacturing practice regulations, 2) compare the readiness of  ready-to-eat food manufacturers before after attending the readiness program for good manufacturing practice regulations, and 3) study problems and obstacles in following good manufacturing practice regulations.

               The population consisted of 60 ready-to-eat food manufacturers with food production license in bakery, meat and seafood, savouries in Samut Sakhon. These manufacturers attained the scores lower than 70% for food production, and they voluntarily participated in the readiness training program. The employed research instruments were (1) a readiness training program,(2) self -assessment checklists on good manufacturing practices, and ,(3) a knowledge test.  The data were analyzed using the percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, and Wilcoxon and Mann- Whitney U test.

           The research findings were as follows:

               1) Ready-to-eat food manufacturers improved their readiness in following good manufacturing practices. 2) The ready-to-eat food manufacturers’ knowledge before and after training was significantly different. The self-assessment in following good manufacturing practice regulations was not significantly different. The assessment in following good manufacturing practice regulations assessed by the auditors was significantly different, and 3) problems and obstacles in following good manufacturing practice regulations was lacking knowledgeable personnel in good manufacturing practices.